Teaching Pronunciation

Universidad de Jaén

ASSIGNMENT – TP

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment has to fulfil the following conditions:

- Length: between 4 and 6 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –ifthere are any-).

- Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman.- Size: 11.- Line height: 1.5.- Alignment: Justified.

The assignment has to be done in this Word document and has to fulfil the rules ofpresentation and edition, as for quotes and bibliographical references which aredetailed in the Study Guide.

Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the Study Guide.Sending it to the tutor’s e-mail is not permitted.

In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can befound in the Study Guide.

The assignment mark is 80% of the final mark, and the participation in the activitiesperformed during the tutorials constitutes the remaining 20%.

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OPTION A.

Take two distinct problems of transfer between Spanish and English (Spanishspeakers with English as the target language) which you consider to beobstacles to efficient communication. The problems can either be segmental orsuprasegmental.

FIRSTLY, explain, as accurately as you can, the causes of the problems inphonetic or phonological terms. SECONDLY, illustrate and explain how you could solve these problems withinthe normal framework of a language course - the level, age and type of studentpresumably being determined by the type of problem you have chosen. Nevertheless, you should consider the problems in terms of the three ’E’variables, and also with reference to Brinton’s five variables, mentioned inSection 9.

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Name and surname(s): Rebecca FitzellLogin: ESFPMLAEILE1823552Master edition: 2014 - 2015Date: 23rd February 2015

Index

Page

1. Introduction

5

2. Brinton’s five variables

5

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3. Problem 1 - /b/ and /v/

7

4. Problem 2 - /s/, /z/ and /ェ z/

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5. Exposure, Exercise, Explanation - /b/ and /v/

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6. Exposure, Exercise, Explanation - /s/, /z/ and /ェ z/

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7. Conclusion

10

8. Bibliography

11

9. Appendices

12

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1. Introduction

When learning a language, communication is of the utmost

importance. Learners wish to not only communicate with native

English-speakers, but also with non-native speakers as it is the

Lingua Franca of today with many universities and careers

offering opportunities in English.

Nowadays there is a general stigma around pronunciation and

it is said that the prototype we should be learning is either

British Received Pronunciation (RP) or General American English

(GA). Obviously, it is very difficult to organise every English

learner or speaker into one of these groups because of many

factors, including their location, whether or not they have

access to speakers with RP or GA and their linguistic and

educational backgrounds. In reality, a very little percentage of

people speak, for example, RP and it is said to be not based on

the area from where people are from, but from the social class

which they are part of.

Typically, students would like to dedicate their time

improving their speaking competence but in order to do this,

they must begin with the basic expertise in correct

pronunciation. Bad pronunciation can cause misunderstandings and

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uncomfortable situations. It can also hinder a student’s

learning process as he / she may not feel confident when

speaking. I believe it is important to encourage correct

pronunciation on a daily basis, integrate it with various skills

and to start this at an early age, as to avoid future problems.

2. Brinton’s five variables (1995)

Learner variables: In this assignment, I will consider the

pronunciation proficiency of adults learners. They are all

Spanish speakers, aged between eighteen and twenty-five,

attending university and are preparing for their Cambridge B1

exam which they hope to take in July of this year. They attend

our private school twice a week for ninety minutes, which I

believe is not sufficient, but due to timetable restrictions of

both the students and the school, it is impossible to increase

contact hours.

Setting variables: All the students have their own English book named

‘Objective PET’, published by Cambridge University Press. This

book deals with the preparation required to take the Cambridge

B1 exam. It has a high content of a mix of the four skills

covered over thirty short units, with one Pronunciation section

in each unit. The students are living in Jaén and have very

limited opportunities to speak English outside the classroom

unless they are in contact with English-speaking Erasmus

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students at the local university or native English-speaking

teachers or language assistants.

Methodological and institutional variables: When addressing their previous

knowledge of English, all have achieved a good command of

English grammar, reading and writing throughout their schooling

in ESO and Bachillerato, but when we arrive to their

capabilities in listening and speaking, they flounder.

I began teaching these learners in September 2014 and when

I started the class, I conducted a Needs Analysis Questionnaire,

which I find a highly useful when getting to know my students.

All of the students, of whom there are twenty-two spread across

two groups, highlighted that they wanted to improve their

pronunciation and placed it as one of the most important issues

that they had, along with speaking. This leads us to think that

pronunciation and speaking obviously go hand-in-hand. They also

believed that because of the traditional Grammar-Translation

method of the 19th-20th century, they did not get enough error

correction with their pronunciation while at primary and

secondary school. The preferred a communicative approach in

class which we have given them.

Also, another factor worth noting is that they preferred

coming to a private ‘academy’ and selecting a class with a

native English-speaking teacher because they felt they could

assimilate pronunciation more efficiently. Having said that,

should they have chosen a class with a non-native English-

speaker, I believe that their progress would not have been much

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different as all teachers are qualified, have great experience

and a fantastic command of English pronunciation. When we

consider these two types of teachers, as highlighted by Jenkins

(1998: 122), the crucial difference between a non-native speaker

of English and a native speaker as regards segmentals, which I

will discuss in this assignment, is that the non-native may

deviate from native models in precisely those sounds that are

considered to be ‘core’ sounds of English, and therefore

essential to approximate closely because they figure in all

native varieties.

Linguistic variables: The main linguistic variables which I wish to

discuss in detail are highlighted in part 3 and 4 of this

assignment. We must also consider that the students addressed in

this essay all come from Jaén and the small towns and villages

surrounding it. Jaén province has a reputation of having an

unusual way of speaking its native Spanish, with habits such as

not pronouncing the correct amount of syllables for example,

“¿Qué ha pasado?” is pronounced as “¿Qué ha pasao?”, pronouncing

an extra syllable for the regular past form -ed ending, or

having problems including the inability to distinguish vowels

correctly, for example: A/E and E/I.

The above are some general errors which my students make

during pronunciation but in this assignment I will focus on two

distinct problems which have appeared on numerous occasions

during my five years of teaching in a private school. These two

problems, the difference between /b/ and /v/, and the correct

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use of /s/, /z/ and /ェz/ in plurals and third person forms, are

at a segmental level. First, it is important to highlight that

these problems are segmental because they deal with the practise

of the pronunciation of particular individual sounds. First, I

will highlight the problems in phonetic terms and then I will

propose a possible solution by considering the three ‘E’

variables.

3. Problem 1 - /b/ and /v/

In my classes, problems have arisen with learners’ confusion of

the sounds and spellings of the minimal pairs of consonants, the

bilabial /b/ and the labiodental /v/. The problem has been that

the learners can rarely pronounce the words correctly as they

find it difficult to make a link between the sound and the

actual letter is represents. In Spanish the sounds are quite

similar and there actually is a sound in Spanish phonetics which

is a combination of these two confusing sounds. The labiodental

sound of /v/ is more difficult because it does not exist in

Spanish. With younger students, the problem arose in spelling

the Spanish word for grape, “uva”. Half of the students thought

it was spelt with “b” and the others with “v”. This type of

confusion between two sounds and spellings in their own language

can transfer to their English learning and in many situations,

like with my adult students, they did not recognise a difference

and found it quite difficult to complete some activities to

practise this.

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4. Problem 2 - /s/, /z/ and / ェ z/

When we add “-s”, “-es” and “-’s” to a word, it is for one of

four purposes:

to create a plural noun, for example, one dog, two

dogs.

to conjugate a verb into the third person, for

example, I play, you play, he / she plays.

for contractions, for example, she’s tall (she is

tall) or she’s got a sister (she has got a sister).

for possessives, for example, my father’s car, my

parents’ cars.

The “-s”, “-es” and “-’s” have three different pronunciations,

respectively:

/s/

/z/

/ェz/

As Kenworthy (1987) points out, learners will tend to add /s/

for noun plurals, even where /z/ is required, so ‘pens’ will

sound like ‘pence’. Both of these sounds are alveolar, thus

students make a similar sound for them. Like with the previous

problem, we should take ‘Exposure, Exercise and Explanation’

into consideration when attempting to rectify this issue.

5. Exposure, Exercise & Explanation: /b/ and /v/

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There are many ways that this problem can be addressed,

practised and improved. First, let us think about Dalton and

Seidlhofer’s (1994) “Exposure, Exercise and Explanation”. In

Exposure, the students will do some communicative activities, so

they will be exposed to the target language and pronunciation.

Then, in Exercise, they will identify the sounds we want to

stress on paying attention to and practise these sounds.

Finally, with explanation, they will become more aware of the

real pronunciation they are expected to produce by the teacher

explaining how to pronounce these words. Of course, there are

different forms of doing these Three E’s and the can follow a

different order.

First, to expose the students to the pronunciation, tongue

twisters could be used. These are a fun, communicative way of

exposing the learners to the target pronunciation. An example of

a tongue twister could be: “Betty bought the violet, velvet vest

which she loved the best.” The students read the tongue twister

and read it several times with a partner. Then the teacher could

ask the students what they think the target pronunciation is

which they need to practise.

After this, the teacher can explain the pronunciation

rules with diagrams (Appendix 5.1 and 5.2) as highlighted by

Baker (1977). By doing this, we make pronunciation visible, as

Underhill (1998) said that even as one becomes slightly more

sensitive to the inner muscular movements, so one is more able

to observe them visually in another speaker.

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Also, as highlighted by Kenworthy (1987), the basic thing

to remember about these sounds is that it is important to draw

attention to the fact that for the /b/ sound, the lips should

start out very tightly closed and then this closure is quickly

released. For /v/ the lower lip should touch the upper teeth and

should produce a more buzzing sound.

Then, students can brainstorm vocabulary which they

already know with the target sounds of /b/ and /v/. To further

exercise these sounds, students could work in pairs and use the

vocabulary from the brainstorming activity to make their own

personal tongue twisters which they can practise and exchange

with different pairs of students. This is quite a useful

activity which I have used many times. Students genuinely

remember their own tongue twisters and feel a sense of

achievement after completing one. It is also very funny as

students find it very comical.

A further activity to help students would be a listening

activity with two lists of similar words with the /b/ sound and

with the /v/ sound. Students have two opportunities to listen to

the audio and they must choose the alternative option which they

hear in the listening. You can find an example list of these

words in Appendix 5.3.

6. Exposure, Exercise & Explanation: /s/, /z/ and / ェ z/

First, we can expose the dilemma by presenting a sentence on the

board:

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“Sally loves cakes and watches soap operas on Tuesdays.”

Students can work in pairs reading the sentence and finding any

different sounds which they may come across with regards to the

letter “-s”, “-es” or “-’s”. Usually, they will only find one,

namely /ェz/ because it causes an extra syllable. They will find

the difference between /s/ and /z/ very difficult to find. At

first, they may not even agree with the teacher that these are

particular plural sounds.

Then, the teacher can explain the different sounds by

drilling the pronunciation of these words. Again, like the

previous process, Baker’s (1977) diagrams (Appendix 6.1 and 6.2)

can help the students with their pronunciation.

After this has been completed, exercises must be carried

out to practise the pronunciation. An activity for doing this

may be giving the students a list of words and a table with

three columns: /s/, /z/ and /ェz/ (Appendix 6.3). Students must

work in pairs, pronounce the words together and put the words

into their correct column, according to their sound. This is a

more communicative task as the students work together and debate

the correct sound they should use. They also usually find this

quite funny. After, they can listen to the teacher to check

their answers.

Two further activities which may be completed is one which

I have taken from the New English File: Pre-Intermediate series

by Oxenden, Latham-Koenig & Seligson (2001). In the first

activity (Appendix 6.4) we can see a table with the three sounds

being represented by the phonetic symbols. These symbols also

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depict a picture of a word in which this sounds appears, for

example, /s/ for snake. I found the phonetic table highlighted

by these series of books very useful as the students will make a

connection between the picture of the word they see and the

sound. It is a great way for them to memorize and practise the

different sounds. In this particular activity, students listen

and repeat the sentences to identify the target sounds. Then,

they must look at six verbs and put them into the third person

singular and highlight the sound used for the ‘s’. After, they

must do something similar but this time with the plural ‘s’ of

nouns. Finally, they can listen and check their answers.

The final activity which I have included (Appendix 6.5) is

similar to a “Spot the difference” activity. Individually,

students looks at the sound and the three verbs below it. They

must circle the verb with a different sound. After, thay can

consult with their partner before having an open-class feedback.

7. Conclusion

Good pronunciation is vital in order for students to communicate

without any awkward difficulties. Teachers must take extra care

when planning their lessons as to provide students with a good

basis of pronunciation, with solid practise and correct output.

We must take all the variables into consideration in our

planning so that they are effective. Tasks should be fun and

innovative and not the usual standard of listening, repeating

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and drilling. All activities should be practical and

communicative to encourage better speaking abilities.

The teacher should also stand as a model for correct

pronunciation, thus students can go to him / her for help and

guidance. By optimising these factors, students’ pronunciation

will develop and improve and their overall confidence and their

proficiency will grow.

8. Bibliography

Baker, A. (1977): Ship or Sheep. An intermediate pronunciation

course. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge

Dalton, C & Seidlhofer, B. (1994): Pronunciation. Oxford

University Press. Oxford.

Jenkins, J. (1998): “Which pronunciation norms and models for

English as an International language?”. In ELT Journal 52/2,

pp.119 -126

Kenworthy, J. (1987): Teaching English Pronunciation. Longman. London.

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Oxenden, C., Latham-Koenig, C. & Seligson, P. (2011): New English

File: Pre-intermediate - Student’s Book and Workbook. Oxford University Press.

Oxford.

Underhill, A. (1998): “Get an ear for pronunciation”. in El

Gazette Issue no. 223, August 1998, p.10

9. Appendices

Appendix 5.1 - Baker (1977) p.

78 Appendix

5.2 - Baker (1977) p. 120

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Appendix 5.3 - Practising

the pronunciation of /b/

and /v/

1. B V2. bat VAT3. berry very4. best vest5. ban van6. boat vote7. bow vow

Appendix 6.1 - Baker (1977) p. 97 Appendix

6.2 - Baker (1977) p. 100

Appendix 6.3 - Practising the pronunciation of /s/, /z/ and /ェz/

- Part I

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Work with a partner and put the following list of words into the

correct column according to the sound of the ‘s’ letter. Is

it /s/, /z/ or /ェz/?

glasses, shops, legs, cakes, classes, toothbrushes, schools, chips, boots, plays, Sundays, watches, books, shoes, finishes

/s/ /z/ /ェz/(answers)shopscakeschipsbootsbooks

legsschoolsplaysSundaysshoes

glassesclassestoothbrusheswatchesfinishes

Appendix 6.4 - Practising the pronunciation of /s/, /z/ and /ェz/

- Part II

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Oxenden, C., Latham-Koenig, C. & Seligson, P. (2011): New English

File: Pre-intermediate - Student’s Book. p.7. Oxford University Press.

Oxford.

Appendix 6.5 - Practising the pronunciation of /s/, /z/ and / ェ z/

- Part III

Oxenden, C., Latham-Koenig, C. & Seligson, P. (2011): New English File: Pre-intermediate - Workbook. p. 6. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

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Teaching Pronunciation

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